Written by Edgar Luna

A few days ago I was invited to attend a speaker event and during that event we were asked to think about and share a recent experience that would have caused us to marvel at something. That thing that would leave a mark and it would make us think about how many things are around us..

As the other people started to share I was going through my thoughts to try to recall something that made me marvel. Then after thinking it through, what popped into my head and made me feel in awe  was that  I recently attended an Ironman event and saw about 2,000 people taking their bodies through a strenuous test of strength, resilience and commitment to complete 70.3 miles of swimming, cycling and running non stop for many hours.

Some of them, mostly professionals, would  finish in under 5 hours and others would take around  6 to 9 hours to complete. Definitely you have to tip your hat and recognize that you have to  be a very special human being to go through a test as demanding as this one and have the commitment and drive to prepare for months before this test..

Now that in itself is something that I will always admire you, however  when you see that during that event a  person with a “disability” is coming out of the bay after an open water swim  of more than a 1.2 miles you can only  feel that admiration towards that warrior of life.

This person that I saw was vision impaired and you could tell only because there was someone guiding them throughout the event. When this person came out of the water and started to make her way to her next leg of the event which was cycling and got ready to grab her bicycle and start to pedal for 56 miles , you could hear a great roar as of the crowd watching, noticed this person come out of the water and was making  the same effort as all these athletes .

As I observed hundreds of people starting to reach land and coming out of the water non stop,  r I got to see another blind person come out of the water, with a similar welcome from the crowd as she also exited the bay water.

After a few hours on the bicycle I started to see athletes coming from the bike ride and preparing themselves to quickly  transition to start their half marathon and run the full 13.3 miles.

As the competition continued I would see these athletes who are deemed to be challenged, performing an activity that to a large percentage of humanity seems impossible or too difficult, and with all that you have these people that do  not let anything stop them.

As the hours went by and I saw these athletes and in particular these ladies with an impairment, I only was thinking of how motivating they were. 

A great example of “no excuses” and  of passion, commitment and love for life.

I love going to those events and get a chance to experience and see so many people committed to a goal and when you see someone that we perceive to have an impediment, be able to do something so amazing, it makes you think and realize that maybe you are not taking full advantage of what life has to offer.

I think we should learn from so many people that give us examples of life and that there are no limits of what we can accomplish when we are committed to reach a goal.

That is for me one of the “Marvels of Life”.

E.Luna